HEBER CITY -- They are cute and cuddly and fuzzy and wuzzy and provide all the bear necessities for people who love to coo at adorable little critters.
But there is something deeper going on, now that two interior Alaskan brown bear cubs have come into the lives of Doug and Lynne Seus.There is more than a little of the lion-king, circle-of-life bit working through Honey and Hoss, as the cubs are called. They've arrived in the Heber Valley just as Bart, the famed movie star bear who has been the Seuses' pride, love, child and joy for 23 1/2 years, is dying of cancer.
"I see this as an absolute circle. Bart's situation is ripping Doug's soul out," said Lynne, gazing out the back of the Seus home on a six-acre plot along the south valley hills of the Wasatch Back.
The 25- to 30-pound cubs, put up for adoption after their mother was shot by a hunter near Paxson, Alaska, about 200 miles northeast of Anchorage, were in a pen beside the house-- two teddies come to life, wrestling each other, romping through water dishes, swinging on a tire swing, playfully cuffing anyone who reached a hand down to their Kodak-moment, picture-perfect, Pooh-ey, gooey muzzles..
Bart, a 9 1/2-foot, 1,580-pound colossus who has fascinated millions in "The Bear," "White Fang," "The Edge" and other motion pictures, lay out back on his side, lifting an occasional ponderous paw toward the crooning birds and the lullaby of Daniels Creek sliding by.
The sarcoma that was discovered a year and a half ago hasn't relinquished its grip on the grizzly through operations and chemo and radiation and many varieties of holistic and alternative medicines.
The Seuses have tried everything in their power and beyond their budget, but Bart is slipping slowly away, Lynne said through films of tears.
"It is so sad that the cubs lost their mom, but I have to say this is a godsend for our family," she said. "It means that Doug will be out back with them and work with them and play with them and hug them and kiss them and take them into his heart.
"Bart has been such a part of Doug's identity and soul, I've been almost afraid that whatever happened to Bart was also happening to Doug. But the cubs coming are wonderful new life.
"It's like, well, here we go again."
Doug Seus was in Montana on behalf of the Vital Ground Foundation, the Seuses' project to protect grizzly bear habitat. But Lynne was there greeting the cubs as they awoke from a midmorning nap. So were Sausha Seus, their daughter, a recent Southern Utah University grad, who has been working with the family animals all her 23 years; Scott Smith, Heber, who's helped with animal training the past 10 years; and Greg Fisher, the Alaska highway patrolman with the Fish and Wildlife Division, who found the cubs and brought them to Utah.
"They were pretty skinny when we found them. They hadn't seen a human. Hadn't seen the light of day, really," Fisher said.
He and his wife, Mallie, tended the cubs 21 hours a day, coaxing them to eat a mixture of lamb's milk, yogurt, whipping cream and rice cereal.
Now the cubs have adapted enough to human contact to pounce and roll around like puppies, snuggling, batting, engaging in World Wrestling Federation smackdown bouts on hind legs with each other, while tumbling around and through the legs of any standers-by.
"They have such a sense of play and fun," Lynne said, affectionately.
Occasionally the cubs register a you-went-too-far low growl.
"The only time a bear will make a sound is if it's disturbed at something," Lynne said. "It means, 'Ooh, what's this? I'm not happy at this moment. I want something.'
"They are born to demand. When they take the mother's nipple, it's not with a whimper, but by bowling up against her. The mother wants it that way because that's the attitude they need in life.
"It says, 'I rule. I am at the top of the food chain. I am very powerful and I can have whatever I want.' "
But 25 years with Bart and other bears also has taught their tender side.
"Ooh, look at the cute little bare bear feet," Sausha said, as Hoss lay on his back, batting her hand like a baby swatting a crib toy.
That sense of play will stay stronger than the predatory instinct, Lynne said.
"Our experience is bears bond more and more and become family members," Lynne said. "When they see you coming it means they get something really wonderful to eat, to go for a walk, a swim.
"They love trips and grand adventures or even just a ride to town-- 'Oh boy, I'm gonna get a milkshake.' Which we have done with Bart."
Just about then, Smith was getting a slurpy, as Hoss began licking him over and over, square in the mouth.
"It's great," Smith said through a slobbery smile. "If I were like 'ooo-wee, gross' with animals, I shouldn't even be here."
"They are used to great affection from their mothers, who quite willingly would give their lives for their cubs," Lynne said.
When Hoss and Honey's mother was killed, it was Fisher's mother-in-law who had this flash.
"She said, 'Wouldn't it be wonderful for the cubs if they could go to that Bart family in Utah that loves bears so much?' " Lynne said.
Now it appears the move may be equally full of wonder and therapy for the Bart family, which may lose him but will never stop loving bears so much.
You can reach Gib Twyman by e-mail at gtwyman@desnews.com